


But did you see the flares in the sky?

by furious_hope



Series: Flares [9]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-22
Updated: 2020-01-22
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:20:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 534
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22364785
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/furious_hope/pseuds/furious_hope
Summary: Neville's birth.Babies are born everyday, but that doesn't stop it being amazing.
Relationships: Alice Longbottom/Frank Longbottom
Series: Flares [9]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1565818
Kudos: 2





	But did you see the flares in the sky?

**Author's Note:**

> CW: pregnancy and childbirth, some graphic description thereof
> 
> This one's a bit more cheerful than they have been (lyrics are getting more hopeful). It's pretty short, but I just want to get back into the habit of posting after exams!

Alice ached. She was trembling faintly all over, and had stopped swearing a few hours ago. The pain potions were not entirely effective and her entire being was stiff and sore. Her stomach felt like it was tearing, and below that she was just trying to ignore. The pushing had lasted years, and breathing had hurt after a while, and she was soaked from the legs down. She had shat at some point, and only realised by the smell. She’d thought herself prepared for this.

She hadn’t been.

She hadn’t been prepared for the smell, and the ache in her legs, and the discomfort of the sheets on her raw, sweaty skin, and the pain lancing down her side, and her throat raw from screaming. The way the antiseptic smell of the Healing Ward would begin to grate on her nostrils. The way that she would lose all dignity and patience with everyone around her, the pain making her anew into someone unfamiliar, fearful and angry. Sh hadn’t been prepared. And she hadn’t been prepared for her baby in her arms.

The indescribable awe and wonder at this little person she had brought into the world. She was holding her baby in her arms, and he had a face, and he moved his tiny little mouth (such a perfect little mouth!), and he cried, and he was the most amazing thing she had ever seen. She had stared down at him, shifting her bum around, trying to get comfortable, her arms clutched fiercely but as gently as she could around him, and thought, well, then, that’s what the point of that was. That’s what the point of it all is. He waved his little arms. She’d never seen such tiny fingers. He was so amazing, she was so proud of him, he was waving. She traced his smooth skin, and it was so thin, and she could see his veins, all that pulsing life. He made another little cry, and she felt love blowing her over, dumbfounded in his presence.

Frank came to hold him, and she didn’t want to give him up yet, but she let Frank hold him. She wouldn't have let anyone but Frank. He looked down at their child, and, in the softest voice she had ever heard him speak, said “Hello there.”

Frank had cried, huge sloppy tears as he held their boy, and she had felt something that was too large to name, swallowing her whole as she looked at them both. Her baby and her husband, and how she loved them.

Physically, she felt shattered, weak and nauseated. She had spent the last few days terrified for her child’s future in a world like theirs. But right now, it all mattered little. They had brought a child into the world, and maybe that was foolish, but Alice was going to protect him with everything she was, and right now, she felt like she could win the war for the little baby. Her little baby. Merlin. Her little baby! A new person, all of his own. She couldn’t wait to know him. She didn’t need to wait to love him, she already loved him with everything she was.


End file.
